Guide to Dog Food for Humans
Posted 5/16/2025

As a dog, I REALLY love food. And as a dog who really loves food, I find it extremely fun and affirming to eat like how a non-human dog would. Whether you're a dog yourself, just playing pretend, or trying to relate to your dog friends, I wanted to write a guide to help you eat more like a canine.

Obvious disclaimer: This is not a diet. I am not a nutritionist. You need to eat well-rounded meals alongside the treats and protein-heavy meals on this list.

Jerky A classic go-to. This is probably the closest you can get to a real dog treat while also being absolutely delicious. Biting and chewing dried meat is also a great textural experience!

Meat Sticks Very similar to jerky but not always as shelf stable. This category is also very varied and dog-treat like. If you get tired of jerky and want something a little bit different to supplement your treat supply, go for these next.

Combos These are super crunchy and come in a variety of yummy flavors. They aren’t too small or too big, just the right size to put one in your mouth and CRUNCH! They have a soft filling which is pretty common in pet food and reminds me a bit of bone marrow.

Scooby Snacks These are literally the shape and size of a milkbone (maybe a bit smaller), but they’re graham crackers. This was my absolute favorite as a kid. They’re pleasantly crunchy.

Chicken in a Biskit These always reminded me of dog biscuits because of their unique shape and addictive chicken flavor. They’re genuinely so good. I especially recommend these to cats as well.

Cereal I always see dry cereal pop up on lists like this since it’s similar to kibble. I don’t get much from eating it since it’s kind of awkward to eat dry cereal with a human mouth but I can totally see why people do. I feel like bland cereals are better for this purpose, like Cheerios, but Cocoa Puffs and Reese’s Puffs are a good color and shape.

Oatmeal I prefer oatmeal to dry cereal, because unlike dry cereal I can get nice big mouthfuls of it. Oatmeal is also a lot easier to make savory than cereal, but usually I just make mine with a few spoonfuls of peanut butter and some honey.

Canned Chili There’s a lot of canned meals they sell that are very dog-esque: corned-beef hash, beef stew, alphabet soup… But I usually go for canned chili. They sell it without beans for chili dogs which looks the most like dog food. But I like the beans.

Meat on the Bone This is a very general category but anything you can eat off the bone is a super good enrichment activity. Chicken and turkey drumsticks, ribs, pork chops, etc. Eat the cartilage too!

Burgers and Hot Dogs I associate traditional American BBQ foods with dogs because that’s what we’re always eating in cartoons and movies. And they’re really good! Bacon too. It's always bacon. Do other cultures have typical foods that dogs beg for? I’m curious.

Bone Products You shouldn’t chew on or eat bones, but they’re really good for you! You can eat bone broth and bone marrow on their own or incorporate them into other recipes.

Actual Dog Food They don't want you to know this, but most dog food (at least in America) is completely edible to humans. You can eat it. The main problem is that it isn't made to appeal to human taste buds. Here's my advice for eating actual dog food and enjoying it too:

• Look for the "human grade" label. This assures that all of the ingredients are safe for humans to consume and that it meets human food production standards.
• Go for treats over kibble/canned food. Listen, dogs don't eat kibble because it tastes good. They eat it because they have to. If they had the choice, they'd be charging your credit card for Beggin Strips DAILY. Besides, you're not going to be eating dog food as a full meal, are you? May as well treat yourself. Get yourself nice, fancy treats.
• Read the ingredients list and look for things that taste good on their own without any added sugar or salt, such as honey.
• Avoid shelf-stable dry foods with primarily starch or flour such as kibble or milk bones. They're just really dry and don't taste good. I don't recommend it.
• Expect it not to taste like human food. If you want to like it, take some time to get used to it.
• I've never tried it, but they do make fresh refrigerated dog food that you could probably incorporate pretty easily into a meal. Just make sure what you're eating is fully cooked. Whether you eat it bland or season it before eating is up to you.

That’s all for my dog food guide. Hope you liked it and have fun chowing down! If there’s anything else I should’ve listed here, leave it in the comments for me :3

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